Bidirectionally predicted pictures (B-pictures) were adopted for the International Standards Organization (ISO) Moving Picture Experts Group-Phase 1 (MPEG-1) video standard, which was optimized for coding of video signals of Source Intermediate Format (SIF: 352×240@30 frames/s or 352×288@25 frames/s) at bitrates of up to about 1.5 Mbit/s. For the next phase of ISO MPEG, the MPEG-2 video standard, optimized for coding of CCIR-601 4:2:0 (active portion: 704×480@30 interlaced frames/s or 704×576@25 interlaced frames/s) at bit rates of 4 to 9 Mbits/s, B-pictures were again proven to provide high coding efficiency. Furthermore, in MPEG-2, the B-pictures were also adapted to achieve temporally scalable (layered) video coding, which is used for temporal scalability from interlace to high temporal resolution progressive video and compatible coding of stereoscopic video.
In addition to the, ISO MPEG standards, the International Telecommunication Union-Transmission Sector (ITU-T) provides the H.263 standard. The H.263 standard is optimized for coding of Quarter Common Intermediate format (QCIF: 176×144@30 frames/s or lower) video at very low bitrates of 20 to 30 kbitss ad includes a very low overhead (and a lower quality) version of B-pictures, called the PB-frame mode. Since the ITU-T H.263 standard deals with coding at lower bitrates of simple (e.g., video phone and video conferencing) scenes, the PB-frame mode was basically employed to double the frame-rate when higher temporal resolution was needed. The quality limitation of PB-frames was not considered to be a major impediment since it was the only efficient method to provide higher frame-rates. Furthermore, soon after completion of H.263, the ITU-T Low Bitrate Coding group started an effort to incorporate optional enhancements to H.263, which when combined with H.263 were expected to result in H.263+ standard. The work on these optional enhancements is being performed in parallel to the ongoing work in ISO on its next phase standard called MPEG-4.
The MPEG-4 standard is being optimized for coding of a number of formats, including QCIF, CIF, and SIF, at bitrates ranging from that employed for H.263 to that employed for MPEG-1, i.e., from about 20 kbits/s to about 1.5 Mbits/s. However, in MPEG-4, besides coding efficiency, the focus is on functionalities. Although MPEG-2 also provide some functionalities such as interactivity with stored bitstream (also provided in MPEG-1), scalability and error resilience, the bitrates used in MPEG-2 are much higher and its functionalities are rather limited. The goal of MPEG-4 is to allow a much higher degree of interactivity, in particular, interactivity with individual video objects in a stored bitstream, scalability, in particular, spatial and temporal scalability of individual objects, higher error resilience, and efficient coding of multiviewpoint video, all at bitrates ranging from very low to high. Further, it is anticipated that MPEG-4's current scope will be extended to include coding of interlaced video of Half Horizontal Resolution (HHR) and CCIR-601 optimized at higher bitrates (e.g., 2 to 6 Mbits/s) than those currently used. The video coding optimization work in MPEG-4 is being accomplished by iterative refinement of Verification Models (VMs) that describe the encoding schemes.